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THE NEW SEASON/FILM: UP AND COMING: Sam Rockwell; One-Man Gallery of Rogues, Crooks and Oddballs

By LAURA WINTERS

Published: September 13, 1998

SAM ROCKWELL is a master of the quick change. The 29-year-old actor showed his range in January at the Sundance Film Festival, where he was featured in not one but three films. He appeared as the romantic, James Dean-like outcast who mows lawns in John Duigan's ''Lawn Dogs,'' which opened in May; he slouched across the screen as a hilariously inept safecracker in John Hamburg's ''Safe Men,'' which opened in July, and he delivered a chilling performance as a car-salesman-turned-hitman in Saul Rubinek's dark comedy ''Jerry and Tom,'' which will also be shown this month at the Toronto Film Festival. ''Sam's got the juice,'' said Joe Mantegna, his co-star in ''Jerry and Tom.''

Although his breakthrough role -- the lovable oddball Bucky in Tom DiCillo's ''Box of Moonlight'' (1997) -- was quite recent, Mr. Rockwell has been acting professionally since he was 18, playing both character roles and quirky leading men, bridging comedy and drama. He has appeared in more than 15 independent films and is now wading into more mainstream movies as well -- including a role as a hanger-on in the new Woody Allen film, ''Celebrity,'' which will open the New York Film Festival on Sept. 25.

Though he has so far played a gallery of rogues, crooks and outsiders, the actor himself has an unassuming sweetness and a puckish sense of mischief. He is compact and agile, with a mop of fly-away light brown hair and mobile, expressive eyebrows. Sipping the first of several cappuccinos at a Greenwich Village cafe near where he lives, he talked about his past and present parts as if they were longstanding friends. Of Sam in ''Safe Men,'' he said, ''He's the most straight-ahead character I've played, but even so he's a weirdo.'' Of Jerry he said, fondly, ''He's a goofball who doesn't know how to do anything that well.''

In ''Jerry and Tom,'' he is required to age 10 years, from callow incompetent to steely-eyed killer. In early screenings, some audience members actually took a while to realize that the older and younger Jerrys were the same actor. ''What was amazing about Sam was that the transformation wasn't showy,'' said Mr. Rubinek, the well-known character actor who debuts as a director with this film. ''It's so seamless that you hardly notice it.''

If there is a thread that binds Mr. Rockwell's work, it is his fascination with anti-heroes. ''I like that dark stuff,'' he said, cheerfully. ''I think heroes should be flawed. There's a bit of self-loathing in there, and a bit of anger.''

In person, however, he gives an impression of originality rather than alienation. Mr. Hamburg, the director of ''Safe Men,'' put it this way: ''Sam is a free spirit. He's the only person I know who, when he goes out to do a major studio movie in Los Angeles, rents a bike instead of a car.''

Mr. Rockwell's attitude can be traced in part to his footloose upbringing. He was born near San Francisco to parents who were both actors, and who divorced when he was 5. Upon graduation from an arts high school in San Francisco in 1987, he moved to New York and studied with William Esper, one of Sanford Meisner's chief proteges. The theater is still his passion: last season, he appeared Off Broadway as a Cockney salesman in Mike Leigh's critically acclaimed play ''Goose-Pimples.''

For his small role in ''Celebrity,'' Mr. Rockwell bleached his hair blond. ''Only for Woody,'' he said demurely.

But Mr. Rockwell's biggest coup is the film that he is currently making, ''The Green Mile,'' based on the Stephen King novel. Set in the South in the 1930's, it stars Tom Hanks as a prison guard and features Mr. Rockwell, in his first major Hollywood role, as a death row inmate. Immersed in preparation for this, Mr. Rockwell was carrying Truman Capote's ''In Cold Blood'' and Jack Henry Abbott's ''In the Belly of the Beast'' in his knapsack. Of Wild Bill, he said, with relish: ''He's the quintessential white-trash nightmare. But after this, I've really got to play some lawyers, or a British aristocrat, or they'll put a label on me.''